Put a new bronze gear on my 8580, done twice before with no issue. After running for a bit dist shaft seized in the housing. I pulled the distributor back out,(which wasn't fun, the shaft couldn't rotate off of the cam gear and the housing must have swelled or distorted from the heat, cause it took a pair of parrot head pliers to turn the prick) and the collar is ground into the base. Also the pilot for the oil pump drive has some metal transfer from the bore in the block. Gonna scare up a duraspark I think and pull the gear to check the fit in this bore. Am I stupid (other than the obvious) for just dropping another dist in if the shaft spins freely? Figured I would relapse parts and run it for a bit, then pull apart and check. Any thoughts or experience is appreciated.

guy who put my little brothers las 306 together swapped the gears and it did the same thing when we tried to break it in on the dyno. I popped the dizzy out of the other motor and took it up there, popped in in and we procedded to break it in and make a couple dozen pulls without issue. His didnt have any galling with the pump shaft or bore though.............

yeah,pretty dumb. Should've killed it right away instead of "2 more miles". my guess is oil could'nt get below the gear. new dist tomorrow(of course no-I shad a shelf unit). Guess I'll have to pull my head outta my kiester when I measure it this time. I can't really think of any other obvious causes

rmcomprandy wrote:The distributor gear has a definite dimension of where it is supposed to be located. Just putting a new gear on the shaft and using the old pin hole will get it wrong almost every time.

I wouldn't call that mean, I'd call it legit. Now that we got past the obvious, I'm gonna try and fix my screw-up. It does seem a little odd to me that that the gear and shaft was pushed up far enough to be less than the spec length. I believe that spec is 4 in +/- .005. Piloto hole has no burr issues, so l'll drop another dist in and pull after a little run time. Hope to watch and see if any underlying issues are still there.

I left out the fact that I did read the paper for specs with my new gear and I new what the dimension should be. My first thought was I didn't achieve it, but after pulling it apart and measuring, the reading comes in at 3.685. So if I mounted it too low, (theory) than how did it compress too a length that is over .250 too short? Not sure yet. Now, as I pressed the cast iron gear off and the bronze gear on my new dist., I tried to pay very close attention to where the gear needed to end up. But as I got to the area my dimension was all of a sudden too short. Around 3.800. Well, the roll-pin through the collar above the gear had started to bend, so I got the collar back where it should be, got the pin-pieces out and used a punch to retain the collar. Probably would've been good to cool the dist. and warm-up the gear, but we know how I am with forethought. Ended up on the money, 4.001. So far, runs fine and pulled it back out and looks good after 10 miles. Now change the oil and check a few more times. Again, thanks for insight and advice (when constructive) on this deal. No denying I screwed up, just trying to figure what. And isn't that what these "helpful" forums are supposed to be for? Still wondering about possible bending or other causes, I may try to post some pics and you can laugh at those.